Episode 03

Marcia calls the candidates to give them details of the interview.

Do the preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the exercises. You can also read the transcript.

Preparation

Transcript

Marcia: Hi, I'm Marcia Boardman. I'm calling from WebWare.

Daniel: Oh, hi, Marcia. Great to hear from you.

Marcia: You'll have already been told you've been shortlisted for interview ...

Sarah: Oh, yes, great ... hello? Can you hear me?

Marcia: Yes ... Is it OK if I call you now? Would you like me to call you back later?

Sarah: Erm, no, no, no, that's OK.

Marcia: Good. Well, we're very excited about meeting you. OK, I just want to talk you through the procedure for the day. Someone will meet you when you arrive, reimburse you for any travel expenses you may have, and then bring you up to meet myself and Philip Hart, the CEO.

Daniel: OK, sounds good. So, will you be the only members of the interview panel there, then?

Marcia: Yes, it'll be just me and Philip who will talk to you. The interview will be in three parts. First of all we'll ask you some general questions about yourself and your educational and professional background, then we'll move on to specifics.

Sarah: Oh, er, specifics? Erm, well, er, what kind of questions will you be asking?

Marcia: Well, it'll be very similar to the personal statement you submitted with your CV. We'll be expecting you to give actual examples of problems you've faced and solved, and of what you feel are your major successes in your career so far.

Daniel: OK, well, yeah, that sounds great. Can't wait!

Marcia: Then there'll be a chance for you to ask us any questions about the job itself or WebWare in general.

Sarah: Oh, erm, OK. I'll think of something!

Marcia: After that, we'd like you to give a short presentation on how you see WebWare as a company progressing, and how you see yourself taking us there.

Daniel: OK, so will I be expected to give, like, a formal-style presentation?

Marcia: It can be as formal or as informal as you like. There'll be a flip chart and a data projector there available. If you need anything else, just let us know.

Sarah: Oh, erm, OK, a presentation! Erm, I'll think of something. I haven't done one of those in a while ...

Marcia: Is that all clear? Great. So, Daniel, I'll see you at 11 a.m., a week tomorrow.

Daniel: OK, great, yeah, I look forward to meeting you! Thanks, bye.

Marcia: OK, so, Sarah, we'll be seeing you at 1 p.m., a week tomorrow. Best of luck!

Sarah: Oh, thanks. I'll need it!

Task 1

Task 2

Discussion

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Profile picture for user Leo Liu

Submitted by Leo Liu on Sat, 03/11/2018 - 13:12

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Dear moderator, The last question is "You'll have already been told you've been shortlisted for interview". Why we use "will" in this sentence. Because I think you want to express they are already informed. So I don't know why to use the "will" here to mean the future. And I think we should add "an" or "the" in front of the "interview". Because it seems to miss a determiner before it. Can you help me? Thanks a lot. Best regards, Leo

Hello Leo,

We can use 'will' for predictions or guesses about the future ("I'll be president one day!") or about the present ("I think he'll be in a meeting now"). 'Will have' is used in the same way when we are guessing about something before a point in the future ("At three o'clock I'll have been here for six hours!") or present ("The meeting will have finished by now"). The use of 'will have' in your example is similar to these: a guess or expectation about something which happened before the present.

 

You can say 'for an interview' or 'for interview' without any difference of meaning in this context.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Vienna2018 on Tue, 01/01/2019 - 22:34

In reply to by Peter M.

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Dear Peter, Can i ask if we can say "you must already told you've been shortlisted for interview" in stead of "You'll have already been told you've been shortlisted for interview..." ? And what is the difference between above two sentences? Thank you. And Happy new year!

Hello Vienna2018,

The sentence is not quite correct. You need to say:

You must have already been told (that) you've been shortlisted for interview.

 

Both sentences are about what someone believes or expects to be true. We generally use 'will have...' when we have an expectation based on what we know about the world (procedures, what is normal, typical etc) and 'must have...' when we have some concrete evidence which persuades us (something we can see, for example, or something we have just heard). The difference is not great, however, and the forms are often interchangeable.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Profile picture for user Leo Liu

Submitted by Leo Liu on Sat, 03/11/2018 - 12:55

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Dear moderator, The third question is "flipchart". In the dictionary, the word has a space in the middle of it. So does it right? And I want to know why we use "flip chart" to mean this. Because the flip is meaning turns over quickly. Can you help me? Thanks a lot. Best regards, Leo

Hello Leo,

Many compound nouns have alternative spellings. Flipchart, for example, can be written as one or two words:

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/flipchart

 

The name clearly comes from the movement used to turn a new page on such a chart, but words are used quite flexibly when new technology comes along and I wouldn't search for an exact match between names which have earlier uses in different contexts.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Profile picture for user Leo Liu

Submitted by Leo Liu on Sat, 03/11/2018 - 12:17

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Dear moderator, I have met another question. What is the "routine" mean in the sentence "Good cop / Bad cop routine"? Because I remember the "routine" means things we regularly do. Can you help me? Thanks a lot. Best regards, Leo